Rank it and they will come?

In the late 90′s the old adage of "build it and they will come" comes to mind when looking at the approach to search, although we have progressed quite rapidly since the good old days.

It’s nearly 2008 and there have been some major developments in the methods used to entice users into converting on your site; some of the more basic ones are almost subconsciously accepted into widespread search practices.

These smaller but still effective methods such as calls to action in your result description are definitely effective; this technique has been well tested and proven in PPC.

But the more interesting changes have been with the bigger players in the market, highlights have included:

Googles acquisition of Doubleclick

With the sheer amount of user data that Doubleclick have accumulated over the past 10 years, combined with the technologies and acquired companies that Google own; this could lead to behavioral targeting on a level never seen before and a new era in the true performance marketing side of search.

Omnitures acquisition of TouchClarity

With February’s acquisition of TouchClarity, advanced behavioral targeting methods were tied into one of the industry’s most popular analytics packages.Banks in the UK are already well on their way with integrating behavioral targeting into their search campaigns.

It’s been an interesting year in the user experience side of search and the industry is gearing up for what looks like a very active 2008.